Going all ‘Darth Vader’ on the squirrels

Squirrels are cute little critters, scampering about the yard, chasing each other,

gathering acorns and other nuts to stash them for the winter. They’re also destructive little devils, digging up the bulbs you carefully planted, poking holes in your lawn, chewing the wooden trim on your porch.

A big part of the problem is over-development, which has shrunk the squirrels’ habitat, so you have a lot of them in a small geographic area. We had a real problem for a while in my Tallahassee neighborhood. I stood at my back door one day and counted more than 60 squirrels! Then, a hawk moved in a block away, and nature took its course.
I still have squirrels, just not an infestation. And I try to limit the damage they do: I wrap my bulbs in chicken wire before planting, grouping small and medium bulbs in threes and including only one large bulb in each wire sack. Position the sprouting end of the bulb so it’s facing one of the open spaces in the wire pattern.
You can also install a squirrel feeder, in the hopes that if they have enough to eat, they won’t cause as much trouble. A gardener can dream.
The talented soul who created the photo-illustration of the Star Wars Squirrels surely was tuned in to the frustrations gardeners sometimes feel, so don’t feel too guilty about chuckling over it.